Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 24.

‘And bildide a tour, and hiride it to erthe tilleris & wente fer in pilgrimage’

Wycliffe's trans. Matthew XXI.

That mentioned in the parable was a watch-tower.

And now we come to the first Medford tower, its use or purpose both secular and religious. It was that of the second Medford meeting-house. Indeed, we have often wondered why its height, thirty-three feet to the eaves, was so disproportionate to its width of thirty-eight. It being built in the valley, perhaps on the site of a brickyard, those early citizens may have emulated a little the ambitions of others, and, tall as their new meeting-house was with its pyramidal roof, they built thereon a little tower, i. e., a toweret or turret, and in it later was placed the first Medford bell.

But it was nearly a century after its first settling that Medford acquired this visible distinction which is a feature of New England towns. Though the first meeting-house, on the ‘great rock by Oborn rode,’ never had this distinguishing exterior feature, it had in its pulpit a ‘little tower,’ or tourelle, in the person of its minister, who spelled his name Turell,—which would indicate that his ancestors were of French extraction. To him it was given to be the occupant of the second pulpit during its entire existence and to begin that of another. That second pulpit only lacked supporting pillars under its ‘sounding board’ (it being suspended by an iron rod), to make it almost a duplicate of the bell turret, the only example of which latter now remaining is that in Hingham, built in 1681.

In 1669-70 was built the third meeting-house. This had the feature of ‘a tower from the ground,’ whose first floor formed a vestibule, and contained a staircase leading to the gallery. Higher up, may (prior to 1812) have